Below are the names of writers who are currently active. For others, living and deceased, please type their name into the search box above the masthead on our home page, www.sdjewishworld.com
In the whole of the Torah, there are only six portions that are named after an individual. Don’t look for parasha Avraham or Moshe. But we do have the Noach Ish Tzaddik Tamim Hayah BeDorotav the wholehearted, righteous man, “perfect in his generation.” Yes, there are, of course, many interpretations of tzaddik, tamim, dorosav, and even ish. [Michael Mantell, PhD]
Noach was a righteous man Read More »
Jewish Religion, Michael MantellWhy is it that some Jewish Americans, including J Streeters, think they know better than Israelis what will bring peace between Jews and Palestinian Arabs? It’s some sort of hubris. Israelis, by a wide margin, recognize that leaving Gaza was a huge mistake, resulting in thousands of attacks on Israelis in the south of our country (primarily but not exclusively) by terrorists allied with Iran. Why then should Israelis even contemplate allowing a similar but more existential situation in the center of Israel adjacent to our major population centers? [Steve Kramer]
With friends like J Street … Read More »
Middle East, Steve Kramer, USA
Ah, the joys of time travel! San Diego author Marcia Berneger, a retired teacher, uses this device to imaginatively retell the story of the first Chanukah in A Dreidel in Time, a chapter book for children between the ages of 8 and 13. [Donald H. Harrison]
Time travel fiction dramatizes first Chanukah Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, Marcia Berneger, San Diego County, The World We Share
The demonstrators, representing a variety of religious and ethnic groups in countries that have been wracked by sectarian fighting, are in agreement that the presence of Iran and its proxies in their homelands has deformed politics and economics alike. Young people want Iran out. [Shoshana Bryen]
Lebanese, Iraqis protest against Iran interference Read More »
Middle East, Shoshana Bryen
My owner suffers from insomnia. It has become so bad that he has begun seeing a Behavioral Therapist to teach him proper sleep hygiene. I felt hurt that he didn’t consult with me first. After all, I sleep most of the day and never had a problem with falling asleep or waking up at night. Sometimes I sleep so deeply that I twitch my legs as if someone was rubbing my stomach. Since he hasn’t heeded my barks of sleeping advice, I am writing this column to share some of my tips. If it works, he can fire his therapist and give me bone. [Elona Baron as told to Laurie Baron]
Had he lived, today, Monday October 28th, would have been Jonas Salk’s 105th birthday. Last night, an audience of mostly senior citizens remembered and appreciated the enormity of the contribution that he made to world health by developing the polio vaccine. And, indirectly, the man who was the speaker at Tifereth Israel Synagogue—Salk’s son, Dr. Peter Salk—played an important role in that drama while he was still a child.[Donald H. Harrison]
The legacy of Dr. Jonas Salk Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, San Diego Calendar, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA
With Jews around the world scheduled to read the story of Noah’s Ark next Saturday, the Abraham Ratner Torah School at Tifereth Israel Synagogue held a blessing for the animals in a brief outdoor ceremony on Sunday. Rabbi Joshua Dorsch, with arms raised, blessed about a dozen dogs and one rabbit that were brought by congregants of the Conservative shul. [Donald H. Harrison]
Animals receive a blessing at Tifereth Israel Synagogue Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Lifestyles, Middle East, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, The World We Share, Travel and Food, USA
The general scholarly and rabbinical view is that the Oral Torah blossomed during the Second Temple period, when Judeans, as Jews were called at that time, who had returned from the Babylonian exile were faced with new problems that the Torah did not address and others that were addressed but needed updating to fit the situations they found. [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]
What is the origin of the Oral Torah? Read More »
Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish History, Jewish Religion
From an initial ten-acre plot of garlic in 1956, the family has expanded its holdings to 6,000 acres throughout central California. The company, also known as Christopher Ranch, harvests approximately 100 million pounds of garlic annually, which translates into the production of approximately one billion garlic bulbs every year. The company has a workforce of 1,000 permanent employees, and upwards of 2,000 employees who are brought in for the harvest season under a federal program with Mexico. [Donald H. Harrison]
Processing a billion garlic bulbs a year Read More »
Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Travel and Food, USA
Professor Lisa Levin of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla will be awarded the Prince Albert I Grand Medal for science on Nov. 7 in Monaco by Prince Albert II, the principality’s reigning monarch, in a ceremony that also will honor former United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. [Donald H. Harrison]
Scripps oceanographer’s date with a prince Read More »
Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, Science, Medicine, & Education, The World We Share, Theatre, Film & Broadcast
Warren sounded as if she was threatening Israel to withhold aid if it refused to halt settlement construction if she is elected president. Pointing to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign pledges, Warren inflamed an already volatile issue with these words: “Right now, Netanyahu says he is going to take Israel in a direction of increasing settlements…It is the official policy of the United States of America to support a two-state solution, and if is moving in the opposite direction, then everything is on the table.” She added with the effect of emphasis: “Everything is on the table.” [Bruce S. Ticker]
Elizabeth Warren antagonizes Jewish voters Read More »
Bruce Ticker, Middle East, USA
[Satire}: What President Trump really was saying about Syria: The government of Turkey has informed my administration that they would be stopping their offensive in Syria, and making the ceasefire permanent. And it will indeed be permanent until Turkey expands farther in Syria. [Lawrence Baron, PhD]
Appeasement in our time Read More »
Lawrence Baron, Trivia, Humor & Satire
Ferris told San Diego Jewish World that only 25 of the 54 units had been occupied, making unprofitable the facility designed under auspices of the San Diego Hebrew Home to accommodate Jewish religious practices. She said surveys of the Jewish community indicated that one of the problems might have been that the residential facility had only independent living units, rather than a mix of units such as there is at the 250-unit Seacrest Village Retirement Community in Encinitas. [Donald H. Harrison]
More details on sale of Seacrest’s Nellie Cohn Residence Read More »
Business & Finance, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish Religion, San Diego County, The World We Share, Travel and Food
Today’s Israeli culture differs from Jewish culture at the state’s founding: Israel is more ethnically diverse, its Jews practicing along a broader spectrum of beliefs. They live mostly in cities, not on kibbutzim or moshavim. They are self-governing, speak a modern form of Hebrew, follow the Jewish calendar, and openly display rather than hide their identity. They live in a country in which they never have to fear de jure anti-Semitism. Israelis are rabbis and talmudic scholars, estheticians and economists, police and politicians, taxi drivers and technical wizards. [Fred Reiss, EdD]
Jewsraelis and other Jewish people of Israel Read More »
Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Middle East